‘Unwelcoming’ or necessary? Florida JCC to get big fence
The Tampa City Council in Florida has approved a 6-foot-high fence around the new branch of a Jewish community center despite opposition by council members and community members.
The fence, which is part of a $30 million renovation of the historic Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, was approved by the council in a 4-3 vote on Oct. 7.
The Tampa Bay Times showed a photo of the type of wrought-iron fence expected to go up, one with spear points atop each post. The plan originally called for it to be on three sides of the art-deco building, but not across its distinctive front. But the Tampa Jewish Community Centers and Federation said the fence is needed to act as a defense against anti-Semitic terrorists or lone-wolf shooters that have attacked Jewish institutions in other states in the past.
“You need to create environments that you’re able to control and protect,” Jack Ross, the executive director of the Jewish Community Centers, told the council, the Times reported.
The 100,000-square-foot community center, to be run jointly with the city, is expected to open in early December. Public and private security experts told the JCC it needs such a full-perimeter fence, Ross said, according to the newspaper.
One council member called the fence “the most unwelcoming thing we could approve.” Another expressed concern that such a fence would keep out the community.
“I am sorry that people see it as unwelcoming,” said City Council vice chairman Harry Cohen, who is Jewish. “But the fact of the matter is that the security considerations they have are significant and they’re doing their best to try to meet them.” — jta
‘Unwelcoming’ or necessary? Florida JCC to get big fence
The Tampa City Council in Florida has approved a 6-foot-high fence around the new branch of a Jewish community center despite opposition by council members and community members.
The fence, which is part of a $30 million renovation of the historic Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, was approved by the council in a 4-3 vote on Oct. 7.
The Tampa Bay Times showed a photo of the type of wrought-iron fence expected to go up, one with spear points atop each post. The plan originally called for it to be on three sides of the art-deco building, but not across its distinctive front. But the Tampa Jewish Community Centers and Federation said the fence is needed to act as a defense against anti-Semitic terrorists or lone-wolf shooters that have attacked Jewish institutions in other states in the past.
“You need to create environments that you’re able to control and protect,” Jack Ross, the executive director of the Jewish Community Centers, told the council, the Times reported.
The 100,000-square-foot community center, to be run jointly with the city, is expected to open in early December. Public and private security experts told the JCC it needs such a full-perimeter fence, Ross said, according to the newspaper.
One council member called the fence “the most unwelcoming thing we could approve.” Another expressed concern that such a fence would keep out the community.
“I am sorry that people see it as unwelcoming,” said City Council vice chairman Harry Cohen, who is Jewish. “But the fact of the matter is that the security considerations they have are significant and they’re doing their best to try to meet them.” — jta
Independent presidential candidate names Jewish running mate
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Evan McMullin, who is running as a conservative alternative to Republican candidate Donald Trump, has named a Jewish running mate, Mindy Finn.
Finn, 35, is president and founder of Empowered Women, a nonprofit that aims to foster discussion of feminism. She worked on digital operations programs for Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, and also at Twitter heading up strategic partnerships in Washington, D.C., and specializing in business development.
McMullin announced Finn as his running mate on Oct. 6, although her name will not appear on several state ballots including California, Texas and Alabama since the announcement came too late for many filing deadlines.
Finn has opposed Trump since the primaries.
“I’m a lifelong Republican,” she wrote in January for the Voices.neverTrump.com website. “But more importantly, I’m an American, a Mom, and though I don’t wear it on my sleeve, a committed Jew. When I see an authoritarian decide who are winners and losers as if he were picking racehorses to bet on, habitually equate people to animals and mock their looks and mannerisms, I see the antithesis of leadership. When I see a man equate strength with an ability to erect tall buildings in their name while threatening to banish entire religions from our country, I don’t merely shake my head in disgust. I’m afraid.”
McMullin, 40, is a former undercover operations officer for the CIA who once studied in Israel. He also was a senior national security and policy adviser in the House of Representatives.
McMullin studied in Israel while an undergraduate at Brigham Young University as a David L. Boren Scholar with the Department of Defense’s National Security Education Program through the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. He called his studies in Israel “a perfect capstone to the traditional coursework I had done in Provo.” — jta
‘Kike’ comments aimed at N.Y. official who opened probe of Trump charity
The Anti-Defamation League condemned a rash of anti-Semitism levied against New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after he announced his office would open an investigation into the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
In a statement Oct. 10, the ADL said that Schneiderman’s Sept. 14 announcement of the investigation prompted a series of anti-Semitic tweets and comments, including tweets reading “More like JEW York Attorney General” and “Just another lying kike grasping at straws.”
“We strongly condemn all forms of anti-Semitic attacks on Attorney General Schneiderman,” said Evan Bernstein, ADL’s New York Regional director. “These repulsive and disturbing actions are just the latest in a concerning trend from the ‘alt-right’ to spread their hate-filled and twisted views across the Internet and social media.”
The ADL had previously announced the formation of a task force to document the alt-right, a conservative movement rooted in white nationalism whose followers often delve into anti-Semitism and race baiting. Members of the alt-right often identify themselves as Trump supporters, and the Trump camp has been criticized for sharing tweets and messages that originated on alt-right websites and discussion boards.
Schneiderman’s office opened a probe into the Republican presidential nominee’s charitable foundation after it came under media scrutiny for unfulfilled pledges and providing donations that benefited Trump personally. On Oct. 3, after Schneiderman ordered the Trump Foundation to cease raising money in New York because it was not registered, a well-known neo-Nazi, Andrew Anglin, wrote on his Daily Stormer website, “New York Kike Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Suspends Trump’s Donations!”
Schneiderman, a Democrat, was blunt in tying the Trump campaign to the kinds of messages he had received.
“When you give license to open expressions of bigotry against Mexicans and Muslims, you open the door to bigotry against all groups of people, including Jews,” he said in a statement. “This type [of] demagoguery and anti-Semitic imagery harkens back to much darker times in history, where not just Jews — but Latinos, African-Americans, virtually every ethnic, racial and religious minority — were subject to the kinds of attacks that sought to marginalize minorities, and shut them out of the political process. It’s deeply troubling that these voices have found new life during the presidential campaign.”
The ADL has urged Trump repeatedly to disavow messages originating among his supporters on the alt-right.
In July, Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, wrote that the candidate should not be held accountable for anti-Semitic attacks on his critics that appeared online. — jta
Oldest Colorado synagogue closes doors
The oldest continuously operating synagogue in Colorado has closed after 127 years.
Temple Aaron in Trinidad, near the Colorado-New Mexico border, closed the week before Rosh Hashanah, Colorado Public Radio reported. It was the first time in the synagogue’s history that it did not host High Holy Day services.
“It’s terribly painful for me,” Ron Rubin, whose family managed the synagogue for the past three decades, told the Denver Post. “It’s just a horrible, horrible thing.”
Temple Aaron, a Reform congregation, had only a few dozen members for decades and its revenue could not cover the annual $50,000 upkeep costs, according to the Post. Its historic Victorian-Moorish building, which has stained-glass windows, underwent a restoration in 2006. It has been put up for sale for $395,000.
The congregation was founded in 1883 by German Jewish settlers and the synagogue was built in 1889. Samuel Jaffa, Trinidad’s first mayor, was one of the congregation’s founders. Jews over time left the small town of around 8,500, and many other towns in the Southwest, for better economic opportunity.
“These places had large amounts of communities to have synagogue structures, to have cemeteries, to have B’nai B’rith chapters,” Rabbi John Feldman, who led services at Temple Aaron, told the Post. “But it hasn’t been like that in many, many decades.”
He added: “That’s, I think, another aspect of why the closing of these doors — and why that loss — feels like one more chapter that has ended in a book where there aren’t too many more chapters.” — jta